Queensland’s early launch site

Eligible children and young people aged under 18 years in Townsville and Charters Towers local government areas, and all eligible people with disability aged under 65 years on Palm Island were the first Queenslanders to access the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) as part of Queensland's early launch from January 2016.

The launch provided the Queensland Government and the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) with a unique opportunity to test the rollout processes and scheme operation in a Queensland setting. As well as providing participants in the launch area with earlier access to NDIS supports, learnings from the launch helped both agencies refine future processes for a smoother transition to the NDIS across Queensland between July 2016 and June 2019.

The launch allowed up to 1,600 people to transition to the NDIS, including those who met the early launch and NDIS eligibility requirements, regardless of whether they had previously received disability supports or services. People did not need to be registered with the previous disability support system to take part in the NDIS early launch.

People who were already receiving services funded under the existing disability support system continued to do so until they transitioned to the NDIS.

For more information about the early launch of the NDIS that occurred in North Queensland in 2016, you can: